Getting comfy with buttermilk mashed potatoes

It's totally up my sleeve to make a dish that bears at once the signature of a chef but is in fact simple. It's totally up my alley to resort to just that when I come home after some strenous activity. In walks Peter Goossens, the 3-Michelin star studded chef and his series of 4 books with recipes and food items, arranged per month and particular to each of the four seasons. As we don't have the weather for March yet, I gleaned over at February which is the month of sinuous young cod or skrei. And here is a recipe for mashed potatoes that is pure transportation into the comfort food zone.

Skrei with buttermilk mashed potatoes

By Peter Goossens

Serves 4

500 g potatoes (preferably firm, e.g. ratte or bintje)
50 g butter
180 g (yes, he writes gram) buttermilk (=approximately 150 ml)
200 g young cod (skrei), preferably the belly (no skrei, after all we're March, so I used another type of white fish)
2 spring onions, cut in diagonal strips

Melt the butter until it is nutty in color and smell ("beurre noisette")

Cook potatoes until 3/4 done - just make sure they're not overdone. Mash them, add the buttermilk and the butter, and stew softly over low heat for a bit longer.

Preheat the oven to 70 °C, and cook the fish in it for 6-9 minutes.

Divide the mashed potatoes over deep plates, garnish with shreds of fish, and decorate with spring onion.

Note: I used a bit less butter, but these are the finest mashed potatoes I have eaten in a long time. The recipe does not even bring up salt, pepper or nutmeg.

Dare I serve thee, comfort food, as an elegant first course to a party of four? Totally.

Retro 1: Kugelhopf

Heart of the Matter #31 for November has chosen Retro Dishes as the monthy theme. Do participate, as there is still plenty of time. The link says how and where to post a recipe.

Here's a dish from France's Alsace region: a type of raisin bread that looks like a cake and that's baked in a high cake tin with hole: Kugelhopf. A Jewish classic. If by name alone this isn't retro, I don't know. I also used a retro brown ceramic dish.

Chef Peter Goossens gave his version in last weekend's paper, and this prompted me to bake it twice this week. As it is low in butter, milk and sugar contents, I give it here, with 3 changes (*).
Kugelhopf, by Peter Goossens of Hof van Cleve fame

170 g flour
10 g yeast
70 cl full cream milk
30 g sugar
1 egg
2 g salt
30 g butter
8 g lemon juice
80 g raisins (marinated in 1 cl rum)
13 g orange candy (*)
shaved and whole almonds

Knead all ingredients (by hand) in a bowl except the fruit. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Mix in the fruit (by hand), and let the dough rest again for 15 minutes.

Make the dough form a ball, then press it flat. Make a hole in the middle (*).

Butter a cake tin, toss in shaved and full almonds, and place the dough on top. Let rise for about an hour in a warm place.

Preheat the oven at 200 °C (*), and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Remove from the tin, let cool, and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

My changes:
1. Instead of candied orange peel I use 13 g coconut shavings or 13 g of ground almond.
2. After letting the dough rest for the second 15 minutes, I immediately transfer this very sticky dough to the cake tin. I cover with plastic foil for rising.
3. For my oven, 200 °C is too hot. My first Kugelhopf was too burnt on top. I prefer 180 ° C and 45 minutes.

Great treat on silent Armistice Day, November 11,when we remember the fallen of World War I.